Hosseini rose to fame in 2003 when he published his first novel, The Kite Runnerwhich tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant. The novel went on to spend 100 weeks onThe New York Times bestseller list and has been sold in over 70 countries. The book was made into a movie directed by Marc Forster in 2007.

In his latest novel, And the Mountains Echoed,which was released last year, Hosseini again takes readers back to his native Afghanistan in a story centered around two siblings who are separated when their father sells one to a wealthy family in Kabul.

“It’s a novel told as a series of interconnected chapters,” explains Hosseini (right). “Each is told from a different perspective with overlapping themes. They hold together as a big whole, but are made up of small pieces.”

Through his three novels, the author has opened a window into the realities of Afghanistan for readers. He admits that he’s become known as someone who’s chronicling the recent history of the country, but says he never set out for that to be the case.

“My primary concern is to tell a story,” says the author. “I’m careful to let people know I’m a novelist, not an academic. I write about people and characters.”

Still, Afghanistan plays a central role in his novels. He was born in Kabul in 1965. His father was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother was a high school teacher of Farsi and history. The family relocated to Paris in 1976 for his father’s work. They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980 but the country had been invaded by the Soviet Army. The family was granted political asylum in the United States and they settled in California in 1980. He went on to receive a medical degree from the University of California, San Diego and became a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004.

“So much has happened there,” Hosseini says of Afghanistan and why it features so prominently in his work. “I’m from there. I feel connected to the country and care about what happened there.”

Today, he resides in Northern California and travels around the country talking about his novels. He enjoys getting to sit and chat with readers.